DAVID—A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART
09—BREAD AND SWORDS
TEXT: 1 Samuel 21:1-6, 8-9
1 Samuel 21:1-6 KJV Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? [2] And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. [3] Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. [4] And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. [5] And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. [6] So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
1 Samuel 21:8-9 KJV And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. [9] And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.
I. INTRODUCTION—SANCTUARY
-All men need a sanctuary in their life. Whether you get to the place out of a choice for worship or under the pressure of the circumstances of life, all men need a place of sanctuary.
-A sanctuary is a holy place. It is a place where we can find the holiness of the Lord, the purity of God’s ways, and the safety that all of the things of God can bring to our lives.
-The Bible gives us a pretty good idea about the concepts of a sanctuary:
• It is the place where the Lord dwells—Ex. 15:17; 25:8
• It is a place associated with wisdom, understanding, work, and service—Ex. 36:1, 3
• It is a place to be shielded from impurity—Lev. 12:4
• It is a place associated with the atonement of sin—Lev. 16:33
• It is a place that must have reverence in it—Lev. 26:2
• It will have priests who will be in charge of it—Num. 3:28
• It will demand a penalty for those who defile the sanctuary—Num. 19:20
• It has resources of help and strength to go out in the day of battle—Ps. 20:2
• It has the power and the glory of the Lord in it—Ps. 63:2
• It helps the saints to see the real condition of the world—Ps. 73:17
• It has a border about it that the Lord has purchased by His hand—Ps. 78:54
• It has been established forever by the Lord—Ps. 78:69
• It contains the strength and beauty of the Lord—Ps. 96:6
• We are to lift our hands in the sanctuary—Ps. 134:2
• We are to praise the Lord in the sanctuary—Ps. 150:1
• We are to pray in the sanctuary—Isa. 16:12
• We are to possess the sanctuary with holiness—Isa. 63:18
-One of the most concerning things that you read in the writings of the Old Testament prophets is that the sanctuary can be defiled by the work and actions of those who are called to keep it holy.
-We need to, in fact we must have a reverence and honor for the sanctuary in such a way that God has liberty and power in our lives.
II. THE AREA OF THE TEXT
-The last time out, we found David in a predicament that would set the tone for the next several years of his life. After he left the stone of his destiny. . . the place where the arrows had gone beyond him. . . He would be put into a place that forced him into a condition of physical, emotional, and spiritual maturity.
-If you haven’t discovered it yet, you will come to understand that it is in the difficult places of life that elicits the most growth.
A. 1 Samuel 21:1-2—Pushed to the House of God
1 Samuel 21:1-2 KJV Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? [2] And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.
-David has been anointed to be a king. There is already a work of holiness going on in his life because he had been separated for service to God. But life is often filled with paradoxes and despite the fact that he has been set aside for God, there are men who are chasing him and he is in a dangerous place that is opposite of the holiness and peace of God.
-Everything that God has intended for David, his enemy is doing his best to destroy it. Saul would have God’s plan and purpose to be destroyed in David’s life.
-David sets an example that all need to remember, when you are on the run, the best place to go is to the house of the Lord. David returns to Nob where there is a sanctuary and a priest. Ahimilech is the high priest who was great-grandson of Eli and he was in possession of the ephod. But there is a greatly concerning matter going on here.
-Ahimilech was a priest who was carrying on his duties in the absence of the Ark. Hophni and Phinehas, his great uncles, had let the Ark get stolen by the Philistines. For all practical purposes the glory of the Lord had been stolen from the Tabernacle. This was the condition of Israel’s spiritual house in their day.
-The same thing can happen when the glory of God gets stolen by the enemies of the house of God. When you start looking at the condition of a church that loses the glory of God, you have to look at what the glory of God is associated with:
• The authority of God’s voice and God’s Word is removed—Deut. 5:24 (God can no longer speak from the fire!)
• Repentance and the confession of sin is no longer practiced—Josh. 7:19 (Achan could not repent.)
• The overpowering presence of the Lord is lost—2 Chron. 5:14
• God’s voice is no longer the prevailing voice—Ps. 29:3
• The strength and the refuge of the Lord disappears—Ps. 62:7
• The hidden things of the Lord are lost—Prov. 25:2
• The supernatural is no longer a part of the house of God—Eze. 8:4
• The power of God that hovers over the place of worship is removed—Eze. 10:19; 11:22
• When the glory of God is gone, carnal men are no longer judged—Acts 12:23
• Men change the identity of who God is and what He is about—Rom. 1:23 (Leads to a foolish, darkened, perverted heart!)
• The promises of God no longer come to pass—Rom. 4:20
• Christ can no longer be received—Rom. 15:7
-This should come as both an encouragement and a warning for us to do everything within our power to protect the glory of God in this house!
-David’s presence was something that alarmed Ahimilech. We are not told this but it very well could be that God had prompted his heart that there was something not right with the whole matter.
-The fact that David was not right with God was detected the moment he entered the sanctuary. We cannot afford to ever come to the place that sin is not detected by the Holy Spirit of God. In fact, I believe that the Spirit ought to regularly and routinely ask, “Why are you like this?” Sin is far too expensive for me to ignore its impact on my life!
-He questioned David, “What are you doing here alone?”
-Instead of David telling him the truth, he told a lie, “I am here on the king’s business and it is top secret. Don’t tell anyone that you have seen me.” We will see sometime in the future where this lie would be something that David would deeply regret and the consequences of his actions would be fatal.
-Far more often than not, we all have to admit that when we come to the house of the Lord that we come with traces of dishonesty, craftiness, and manipulation in our spirits. Yet despite that, there is something deep within us that draws us toward God. We should never attempt to justify or dismiss anything that is less than what God calls for us in His Word yet the reality is that we do many things in an effort to survive the moments of life that seem to get the upper hand on us.
• Doubting God’s deliverance.
• Doubting that God can overcome the details of our trial.
• Doubting that God really loves us.
• Doubting that God can make things right.
• Doubting that God even knows where we are.
-Despite that there is the drawing work of the Spirit that pull us in to a place of worship.
Eugene Peterson—From Leap Over a Wall—On David seeking out God—One of the distressing and distressingly frequent corruptions that works its way into the spiritual life is the loss of connection between who God is and who we are. We say the name of God, we enter a sanctuary, we pray—but often the slightest tone of falsehood begins to creep in, a subtle dishonesty that gets into our speech and our action; the religious place offers an occasion to use God instead of submitting to him. Instead of becoming more before God, we become less. David is an antidote to this. We read David to cultivate a sense of reality for a true life, an honest life, a God-aware and God-responsive life.
B. 1 Samuel 21:3-6—Holy Bread
1 Samuel 21:3-6 KJV Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. [4] And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. [5] And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. [6] So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
-Despite the fear that caused him to twist the truth, David knew that the house of the Lord had something for him. He asked Ahimilech for bread. He and those who were with him were desperate with hunger.
-On that day, the only bread that was available in the Tabernacle was the holy bread. Each Sabbath day twelve flat cakes of bread, hot from the fires of the oven, were placed on the golden trays and then placed on the golden table of showbread in the sanctuary.
-Two rows of six loaves each, one loaf for each tribe of Israel. Levitical law stipulated that only the consecrated priests could eat it. But in the moment of need, Ahimilech was willing to forgo the demands of the law.
-Jesus would make a reference to this very act of mercy when he rebuked the Pharisees on their legalistic strictness (Matt. 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28). The Pharisees had confronted Jesus about his violation of the Sabbath.
-There is much to gain from the actions of Ahimilech. . . First, the ministry of the Law works toward mercy more than toward judgment. There is something about the Law of the Lord that pulls us toward holiness with the action of mercy. There will always be salvation in mercy that reaches from a Cross.
I am reading a book right now about the way that the CIA and FBI interrogated the al-Qaeda at Guantanamo Bay. The CIA used waterboarding, stress positions, putting captors in boxes that resembled caskets, and German Shepherds to attempt to get information from them. What happened with this technique was the information that was obtained and faulty and overall worthless. But when the FBI got involved, they expressed a sense of kindness toward the captives and even gave some of them fish sandwiches from McDonald’s. The information they received was crucial in that it was accurate and prevented a number of further terrorist attacks and even led to the capture of some of the leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
-As I read the book, I have to say that some of my opinions were changed about showing mercy to those who had attempted to destroy our country on September 11, 2001. The reality was that these men were getting something they did not receive but in the process it opened doors to our security agents.
-On the other hand, the second condition that would have caused the holy bread to be withheld from David was if his men were involved in sexual impurity. Ahimilech told him that the young men must be free from sexual sin. No matter how loose our society becomes, God still has a standard and there are some sinful actions that entirely and totally disqualify us from the blessings of the Law (Word).
1 Corinthians 6:18 KJV Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
1 Peter 2:11 KJV Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Ephesians 5:3 KJV But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Ephesians 5:3 Moffatt NT Never let any sexual vice or impurity or lust be so much as mentioned by you — that is the proper course for saints to take;
Ephesians 5:3 ESV But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
-If there ever were an age where we ought to make a strong commitment to sexual purity, it is now! God needs a holy reverent church. There are some things that God may grant mercy toward, as with David not being truthful, but there are other things that mark us so that God cannot and will not sustain us until we come to a place of complete repentance!
C. 1 Samuel 21:8-9—A Sword Like No Other
1 Samuel 21:8-9 KJV And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. [9] And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.
-This is one of the most powerful passages in the Bible. I have preached from it before and yet the more I dig into it the more I realize that there are more treasures than we can get our minds around.
-Here was Goliath’s sword which was a symbol of God having delivered the nation from a terrible enemy in the past. Furthermore it was kept with the ephod. It was a memorial preserved in a place of worship where God had used David in the past.
-This sword had been carefully protected from scratches of negligence and from the tarnishing of time. It was viewed by men and women who came to pray and renew their faith in the Lord. There is something about looking to past victories that builds trust as nothing else.
-That old song. . . We Exalt Three. . . Oh Lord! We ought to do that when we look at the victories of the past.
• Let me get my hands on the weapon one more time. . .
• Lead me to a prayer room one more time. . .
• Let me hear that sermon one more time. . .
• Tell me about God’s deliverance in your life one more time. . .
• Tell me about when you got the Holy Ghost one more time. . .
• Tell me about how that God healed your children one more time. . .
• Tell me about the way God built His church one more time. . .
• Lead me to the old campmeeting tabernacle one more time. . .
-But I cannot let this fact lay either. . . It was kept with the ephod. Several months ago, as I worked through the garments of the priest, there are some things about the ephod that stands out:
• Symbolic of spiritual authority because of its royalty.
• Symbolic of spiritual grace.
• Symbolic of spiritual fruitfulness.
• Symbolic of spiritual hearing.
-Every victory that God allows us to experience is because of a connection with His authority, His grace, His fruitfulness in our lives and of our sensitivity to hearing the voice of God.
III. CONCLUSION—FLEE TO THE HOUSE OF GOD
-David came to a holy place hungry and defenseless and he left full and equipped!
-I am thankful for the grace of God in that there were days when I was less than what I should have been but he put a priest in my life, a preacher, who gave me some bread that gave me strength for another day and a sword to survive one more battle. You ought to be thankful for a sanctuary and a priest!
-Back in the days of the old black spirituals Mahalia Jackson sang a song, How I Got Over, it goes like this:
How I got over
How I got over
You know my soul looks back and wonder
How I got over
Soon as I can see Jesus
The man that died for me
Man that bled and suffered
Hung on Calvary
I'm gonna thank him
For how he brought me
I'm gonna thank God
For how he taught me
Yes, thank my God for how he kept me
I'm gonna thank him 'cause He never left me
I'm gonna thank God for ol' time religion
I'm gonna thank Him for giving me a vision
I'm gon' join the Heavenly choir
And I'm a-sing and never get tired
I'm gonna sing somewhere 'round God's alter
And I'm a-shout all my troubles over
Lord, we got to thank you
Thank you for being so good to me
(chorus)
I'm gon' wear a white-garment
In that New Jerusalem
I'm gonna walk the streets of gold
In that homeland of the soul
I'm gonna view the hosts in white
That been traveling day and night
Coming up from every nation
On their way to the great coronation
Coming from the north, south, east, and west
On their way to a land of rest
Lord, we gonna join the heavenly choir
We gon' sing and never get tired
Lord, we gon' sing somewhere 'round your alter
And we gonna shout all our troubles over
Lord, we gotta thank you
Thank you for being so good to me
Hmmm, I wanna thank you, this morning
I wanna thank you, Lord, this morning
You know all, all night long
You kept your angels watching over me
And you told your angels this morning
You told your angels, Lord, this morning
You said, "Touch her, in my name"
You said, "Touch her, in my name"
And I rose, I rose this morning
Lord, I rose, I rose this morning
With the blood, blood running warm
All in my veins, Oh Lord
Lord, I feel, I feel like running
Lord, I feel, I feel like running
Lord, you know I feel, feel like running
Lord, Lord, I feel, I feel like running
Lord, I wanna thank you
Thank you, thank you for being
So good to me
-Even when we were seeking a sanctuary and our motives weren’t right. . . Even when we brought dishonesty to the house of the Lord. . . even when we were not in the best spiritual condition. . . the grace of the Lord put a preacher in our path who gave us some bread and a sword.
-The bread was for strength for the journey. . . the sword was so we could fight another day!!!
-I want to spend my days in the house of the Lord!!!!!
Philip Harrelson
February 19, 2014
